Moulding, and in particular injection moulding, is used in many applications to mass produce plastics components at low unit cost. A characteristic of the conventional injection moulding process is that, because only one plastics material is injected into the mould, the resultant component has relatively uniform properties throughout. In applications where different material properties are required for different areas of a component, this can produce difficulties and/or result in the need for further steps to produce a final product. For instance, in many applications it is desirable to change the surface characteristics of a plastics component produced by injection moulding (to provide hardness, colour, reflectivity etc.).
One way of changing the surface properties of a part produced by injection moulding is to cover (partially or fully) that part with a film. Such a film may add abrasion resistance, colour, or reflectivity for instance.
The addition of a film after the injection moulding process adds cost and complexity to the production of plastics moulded parts having a film covering.
By way of example, it is known to apply thin plastic film to a vehicle external mirror housing to provide colour matching to that of the body of the vehicle and to add abrasion resistance. Known techniques for such application add complexity to the production of mirror housings.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved method of producing a plastics moulded part having an external covering.